


For Luck

by pagerunner



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/M, episode 5 interlude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 10:14:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5623591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pagerunner/pseuds/pagerunner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhys and Sasha share a little private moment before heading off to face the Traveler. Or in other words: Page indulges a few more of her romantic impulses, 'cause these two deserve it. Episode 5 interlude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Luck

Sasha’s watching him as they start to get ready for battle, and under that perceptive gaze, Rhys can't help but blush.

For one thing, he's definitely got the easier job here. Sasha’s set for a death-defying leap into a mystical vortex to explode a Vault monster from within, and he’s…well, his job is going to be _talking_. He’s not punching anywhere near her weight here, and he knows it. Of course, that's nothing new. Sasha is a goddamn force of nature, and it's hard not to feel a little bit in awe.

On the other hand, she's smiling at him as she leans against the wall, her hips cocked and arms crossed. It doesn't even look completely teasing, even if she opens with a little verbal dig. “So, _Atlas_ ,” she says, dwelling on the new label. “I never really got a chance to ask. Enjoying your new gig as hotshot CEO?”

“Hah. Well.” He meets her gaze properly. “To be fair, I’m not exactly heading up thousands of employees yet, or…anybody, really, it's still in the planning stages, but…” He straightens his lapels, and in the process, straightens his back and lifts his chin, unconsciously making it a bit of a pose. “It's got potential.”

Sasha takes the opportunity to sidle up close and give his chin a little knock, smiling crookedly. “And the new wardrobe was priority one, huh?”

It kind of was, he has to admit. No one would ever take him seriously as an authority if he’d stayed as bedraggled and wounded, inside and out, as he had been when he got back to Atlas. But this isn't the best moment for that conversation. Instead, he deflects it right back onto Sasha. “Yeah, well, look who's talking,” he says, with his own little cockeyed smile. “The new look suits you.”

He can tell she already knows it does, but she gives him a gracious little nod anyway. “You too. Looks like you got much better taste after you got that jerk out of your head.”

He laughs ruefully. “Oh, I can't blame that part on Jack, but…”

“Take the compliment, Rhys.”

Two of her fingers have drifted to the glowing buttons, and Rhys is pretty sure that if he ever stopped blushing in the first place, he's starting up again now. “Right. I can do that.”

Sasha lets the touch linger just long enough to be distracting, then draws back. “So I guess if Atlas is still a work in progress, you haven't gotten any practice yet with the big corporate speeches, huh? ‘Cause if you _have,_ that might actually be useful right about now.”

“No, sorry. So far, it's been a lot of me talking to the walls,” he admits, looking around. They're in a relatively private corner for the moment, with Vaughn and Loader Bot only in distant view and the others off preparing supplies. It's almost like one of the days at Atlas when it was just Rhys there by himself trying to pull things together, and wishing for help. For company. For anybody, really. But, frequently, he’d been wishing for Sasha.

At least this time she's actually here, and she’s watching him with a concerned sort of sympathy now. She doesn’t know what he went through, she can’t possibly, but she’s picking up on the undercurrents. Rhys sighs and collects himself as best he can. He doesn’t want to be putting all that on her, especially not now.

So he tries to shrug things off. “Speech practice or not, I’m good at talking to robots. That part I can most definitely do.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Roboto. Guess it’s kinda like family for you, huh?”

That makes him smile in an entirely different way. “Well, yeah. You’re _all_ kinda like family now.”

Sasha’s expression changes first with surprise, then with something softer. She schools it into something more arch almost immediately, but he knows what he saw. “Just so long as you’re not casting yourself as my annoying brother or something in this scenario,” is what she tells him.

Rhys laughs and makes a horrified face. “Oh, God, no. _Not_ that. Definitely not.”

“Hmm,” she replies, but offers nothing more. She’s just studying him, thinking something over. Rhys finally has to nudge her elbow, prompting her into another topic before the silence makes him too nervous.

“How about you?” he says. “You ready for your whole part of this crazy plan?”

She blows out a breath. “Uh. Well. In the sense that I have no idea if it’ll work or if my sister and I will just be flying into the jaws of impending doom? Yeah, I’m doing _just fine._ ” She cracks a nervous smile of her own. “But we’ve done crazier things already, right?”

He looks up into their little corner of the ruins of Helios. “Yeah,” he says. “Guess we have.”

It’s silent for a minute. While his eyes are still raised, Sasha steps closer and touches his cybernetic hand. It’s more force-sensitive than the old unit, enough to make him startle alert again and and look down.

Under the golden glow of his new eye, she catches her breath.

“Sasha,” he tries to say, but he doesn’t get any further. She holds on tight and speaks instead.

“We’re okay, Rhys,” she tells him, in a way that makes his heart skip. “We’re all together again. Like it should be. We’ll get through this. Save Gortys. Get at that Vault you wanted right from the start.”

“Right,” he drawls at that, smiling halfway. “The Vault you tried to _con_ me about right at the start.”

“Hey. I _did_ con you. Entirely successfully.”

“Well, for a _while._ ”

“Oh, whatever.”

It’s such a silly little joke, but in that moment, things feel a little more balanced between them again. Rhys feels her her fingers fold between his chrome ones. The new hand’s heat sensors are receptive enough to tell him how warm her touch is, but it’s nothing compared to the entirely human flush that spreads through him when she goes up on tiptoes and says, “Still. With everything we’re up against…a little kiss for luck won’t hurt.”

He blinks. “A ki—”

He doesn’t get the chance to finish the word. It stops when Sasha’s lips meet his, soft and subtle, in such a fleeting touch that he’s barely caught up with the feeling before she’s drawn back again. But she doesn’t go far. Her eyes are still tracking his, her breath warm against his skin.

Rhys finds himself murmuring, “Oh, we need more luck than _that._ ”

He reaches up with the other hand to tilt her chin up, listening to the faint, happy little sigh she makes against his mouth when he kisses her again. He keeps it gentle, barely even parts his lips, but those three little points of contact—their hands, his fingertips against her skin, the soft movements of their mouths—are just _everything._

He’s still tingling with it when Fiona’s voice calls out from across the room. “Hey, Sash? Where are you? Need you to take a look at something.”

To Sasha’s credit, she doesn’t jerk away like she’s been caught out. She pulls back gradually, watching Rhys’ eyes drift back open, and she’s biting her lower lip in a way that makes an entirely more heated sensation uncurl within him. “Well,” she says under her breath. “Now we’ve _really_ got a reason to get through this, huh?”

“You bet we do,” Rhys says fervently.

Sasha grins at him. Then she turns her head and calls out, “Be right there, Fi.”

Rhys lets go of her hand at last, gesturing as if to say _it’s all right, go ahead._ She almost does. But then she pivots and steps back for a quick, impulsive hug. It takes Rhys a second again to recover from the surprise, but he still has just enough time—enough to curl his arms around her, pull her close, feel the rapid hammer of her heartbeat.

Then she’s dashing off, leaving Rhys to press two fingers to his own mouth for a long, thoughtful moment. Finally he blows a kiss right back to her, no matter if she can’t see. It may be a silly, foolishly romantic impulse, but third time’s the charm, after all. And Sasha deserves every bit of the luck he can give her. Even if it means passing along his own.

No matter what, after all, he’ll hold up his end. He’ll do his job. And no matter how anxious he still might be about the battle yet to come, there’s one thing for sure: he’s gonna _love_ getting to see her fly.


End file.
